Chapter Text
The palace was grand and luxurious, as befitting of a Queen. The hall was big enough to house at least an entire village, and even the pillars looked expensive and strong.
Beca tried to poke it, only to be yanked forward by the palace guard. Normally, she wouldn’t care too much; she can outwit anyone if she put her mind to it, and no jail can hold her for too long, but this was not an ordinary palace guard.
This was an ice palace guard.
The guard was made from ice, shaped into a vaguely human shape. He was freezing cold, and his spear and shield were also made from, what else, ice.
So don’t blame her for feeling wary and afraid.
She supposed it was her own fault that caused this to happen in the first place. Who dared to steal from the Ice Queen’s garden?
But she was tempted by what lies behind the ice palace, and just when she tried to reach a frozen apple from its branch, she was pulled downward by a pair of cold hands. She tried to kick her captor, but her foot met a sturdy block of ice. She shrieked from the cold and the pain from when her weak human flesh met the guard’s strong ice body.
So now her captor dragged her to face the Ice Queen herself.
She heard a lot about the Ice Queen. How she had the most powerful magic in the land and how it can freeze everything she touched. She was reclusive, and she hid herself in a big castle outside of Beca’s village. It was made from ice, and when the sun was at its peak, the ice glinted so beautifully with rainbows dancing on the reflection.
It was some sort of tradition, a rite of passage, to approach the ice castle and touch the wall. Usually, they only boasted that they were able to do that instead of running scared like they actually did. The guards never hurt any of the curious gawkers, only chasing them away if they got too close.
The villagers were scared of the Queen, but they didn’t dare to do anything to her, mostly because no one wanted to get frozen to death. Besides, it wasn’t like she hurt them either. So they just left her alone, and the more superstitious villagers sometimes left some offerings near the castle.
The offerings were always gone the next day, although Beca personally thought other people took it, not the Queen. Did she even need food and jewelry? Beca didn’t think so.
So, the villagers and the reclusive woman live together with some minor accidents here and there. They looked her up as their sort of benevolent but aloof ruler and guardian, since she sometimes helped them with the bad weathers or the bandits that plagued them many moons ago, back when Barden wasn’t well-known with its protector.
(No one else could make the blizzard that threatened to destroy the crops disappeared like nothing, and no one else could freeze the bandits’ legs and arms either.)
Even so, Beca was still afraid to meet the notorious woman. Sure, she never hurt anyone, but no one ever got into the castle, either. Who knew what will the Queen do to trespassers?
Gods, she didn’t want to die.
Before she knew it, the guard stopped in front of the big door. The two guards that stood besides the door opened it with a big screech, and Beca felt her teeth chattering when the cold that permeated the castle felt far more intense than before.
The guard that caught her poked her back with the tip of his spear, causing her to stumble while trying not to pass out from the cold.
She fell, and when she lifted her head, she saw a raised platform with a throne in the middle and a pair of feet in front of her.
Wait.
The Ice Queen was here.
Gods save her.